Failed Attempts
by DeciphererofDarkness75
Summary: Not giving up on this pairing! Must fight, work, and grow! Whooo! Zoe attempts to confess her love for Rex, but keeps stumbling and making mistakes and he's so dense that he doesn't get it. How will she come about confessing it the right way?Rex x Zoe
1. Attempt Nember One!

_**Failed Attempts**_

Zoe sat in the small brown bench in the park. She didn't want to know. She didn't want to know what his reaction would be when she told him. Told Rex. She'd asked him to meet her here, but....she was beginning to have second thoughts. She was terribly afraid of his reaction.

_Would he laugh?_

_Or look troubled?_

_Would he flat-out ignore me for the rest of his life...?_

_Would he smile?_

She wiped a falling tear. _Don't leave...!_

"Zoe...!" she heard someone call her name. She recognized the voice as Rex's, and turned around. She faked a smile. Her face turned bright red. "Are you alright?" he asked. "You don't look so good." She smiled at his concern.

"Oh, no, I'm fine. Wanna take a walk..?"

"Uh, sure."

They walked in silence for what seemed like hours. She tried to say it. Now. Make it quick.

"R–!" She suddenly stopped. Her face turned red. The words weren't coming out. They didn't want to. No matter how hard she tried...

"Um, hey, Zoe..."

"Yeah?"

"I think I see where this is going..."

"You do?"

He nodded then said, "You want some ice cream but don't wanna pay for it, so you need me to!"

Zoe fell down anime style. In her head, she was screaming: _**You dork! How can you be sooo smart yet at the same time, so frikin' DENSE?! Oh, but that's why I love you, isn't it?**_

She quickly got back up and said, "No, that's not what I mean, what I need to tell you is that I–"

She suddenly fainted and everything went black.

Rex:

_Oh._ He picked her up bridal style and took her to the Taylor residence, not minding the many eyes that gazed upon him during his walk.

_**When he reached the Taylor Residence...**_

"Yeah, well, all she had was a fever, so she should be fine in the morning, " said Mr. Taylor.

"Eerr...thank you..., " mumbled Rex.

Mr. Taylor stopped then turned around to look at Rex quizzically. "What were you doing with a young girl like Zoe at this time of night?"

Rex blushed and sweatdropped. "JUST WHAT ARE YOU IMAGINING?!"

It was Mr. Taylor's turn to blush. "Never mind." He closed the door to leave them alone. Rex looked at Zoe sleeping so peacefully. He still didn't quite understand what she was trying to say.

Rex stared absent-mindedly at Zoe and for the first time, realized that she looked unbelievably cute asleep. She looked so peaceful.

He didn't know what came over him, but he silently and slowly pressed his lips against hers. He was absent-minded. Didn't know what he was feeling at that moment, except happiness. At first, he didn't intend to pull away, but he realized he would get caught soon, and he didn't want to explain.

He walked out of the room, pondering on his previous action, while an amused figure lingered in the darkness, and the figure had witnessed that precious moment.

"Oh, _this_ is going to be fun..."

--

Hi! How'd you like the first chapter??? NOT GIVING UP ON THIS, NO, NO!

Rex: You're gonna embarrass me to Hell...

Zoe: Scabby, do you know who the figure was?

Scabby: That's......my secret!


	2. Attempt Numero Dos!

Heeeellloooo! The long-awaited Chapter 2 of "Failed Attempts." Boo-Yah! The first story people actually look forward to! Just who is that mysterious character...?

_**Attempt Numero Dos!**_

Zoe awoke to the sound of birds singing. She smiled quietly to herself. She was sure that the last thing she wanted was to worry Rex, so she got up and decided to change.

After what seemed like a century, (a/n: You know us girls!) She decided to go with what she had; (remember, she was at the Taylors. All she had was a bag. I know I didn't say anything about that in chapter 1, but just cope, ok?) A black and pink shirt that had the number 24 on it, a jean skirt, knee-length black and pink 24 socks, and black lace-up boots, which she didn't put on just yet. (I did my best...)

She decided to go to the bathroom and wash her face. She slowly walked out the door. It looked like she'd woken up early, with the fact that screaming wasn't in every area of the house.

She looked at a nearby clock; it was 6: 50 a.m.

She turned the corner and suddenly–

WHAM!!!!!!!!!

_Please wait a moment_..._ (elevator music plays)_

Okay, back to reality...

Zoe opened her eyes to see Rex; and....the very seemingly awkward position they were both in. They both blushed deep red as a tiny drop of blood escaped Zoe's forehead where they'd bumped into each other.

But, of course, just a tiny drop of blood would make Rex freak out entire– oh, speak of the devil, there he goes.

"OH MY GOSH ZOE!!! ARE YOU OKAY? DO YOU NEED AN AMBULANCE? I'M SO SORRY, I DIDN'T SEE YOU THERE–"

She smiled and sweatdropped, "Er, Rex, I'm fine. I'll just need a band aid...that's it. Er, you'll wake up the entire house."

Rex popped out of chibi panic form and mumbled a slow "sorry" as he led her to the kitchen. She sat at the table and tried to say it. But something kept her voice in.

She panicked. _Oh, no...! I have to say it __**now.**__ I might not get another chance!_

Rex came back with the bandage and placed it on her head. She blushed. "Thank you," she said. Rex smiled and said, "Anytime." He went to get his cereal and Zoe went to get hers.

Once they sat down, Rex tried to pull at the strings of conversation. He scratched his head then mumbled softly, "What was it that you were trying to say last night, Zoe?"

She stopped eating, swallowed, and stared at him. She didn't feel like she was ready to tell him. She could feel her face growing red hot, and she just smiled. "Oh, um, well that is– that I...what I mean is...there was this one thing....um..."

Rex didn't want to be a bother, so he just added quickly, "I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to! I just wanted to know, so..."

She smiled and nodded in gratitude.

When they finished eating, no one was awake just yet. As they were washing their dishes, Rex leaned over and kissed Zoe on the cheek. She turned to look at him and yelped, "EH?!"

He blushed and looked for an excuse to his action. "There was something on your face. Just thought I'd get it off."

"Oh, I see."

Rex told her that he would go change and she nodded.

Once inside his room, he collapsed on his bed and then hit his head on the wall five times. _What was I __**thinking?**__ She didn't really have something on her face! I must be losing it._

He quickly changed into a brown shirt that said, "My Dinosaur Ate My Homework" and jeans. As he got ready to leave his room, he heard a thump by his window. It slowly opened and a dark figure was suddenly looming over the blonde.

"Perhaps....._I_ can be of some assistance?"

--

Scabby: Oh ho ho! So you still don't know who the figure is do you?

Zoe: Waaaaaaah, stop keeping me AND the readers in so much suspense!!!!

Rex: I'd rather she stopped the story.....this is so embarrassing...

Scabby: Don't worry, there's lots more embarrassment yet to come, Rex! By the way, if you want to find out who the weird creepy figure is, REVIEW! Thankies!


	3. Realizations

Hello, folks! Me with Chapter 3 of "Failed Attempts!" Whoo hoo! Achievement! Achievement! Yaaaah! Am I scaring you? Sorry, sorry. Here we go!

_**Realizations**_

Rex stared up at the tall man. He couldn't see his face, but he could see an amused smile across it. He knew this man. He just knew it! His hands clenched and he said, "Who are you?"

The man leaned onto a nearby shelf and turned on a lamp. Now Rex could see the man's face. Now he saw. He saw everything. And boy was he mad...

It was (dum-dum-dum) Seth, with Rod standing behind him. Rex felt ready to kick the two of them.....in fact he did.

"Ow! What the heck was that for?" Rod screamed, stomping on Rex's foot. Rex bonked Rod on the head for that, and the two of them were soon in a swirling anime fight cloud, with Seth sending death glares at them.

"Rod, stop it...we're here to use Rex to relieve our boredom..._**NOT**_ to destroy him!" Seth said calmly, except the last part sounded vastly interesting to Rex. "What? Relieve your boredom? I– Wait a second, first things first, why are you here? Are you here to hurt any of us? 'Cause I'm warning–"

Seth mumbled a silent but enchanting in some way, "If you would let us explain..."

Rex calmed down for a moment and sat on his bed. "I'm all ears."

"Thank you. We are here to relieve our boredom. Nothing is going on at headquarters, as a matter of fact, if that is possible. We came to your _house_, " Seth said it with a great deal of disgust, "last night to see if anything particularly _interesting_ or _peculiar_ going on and we found _your_ little dilemma..."

Rod smiled and pretended to shoot an arrow over to Rex. Then, he sat next to him on the bed. He said, "You know, Seth secretly adores these types of situations. Since when did you fall for Zoe, eh?"

Rex opened his mouth, closed it, turned beet red, closed his eyes, then proceeded to passing out.

Rod sweatdropped. "Seth, ya think that was a wee little too direct?"

Seth nodded in approval. Rex quickly regained consciousness. "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" Seth couldn't take it anymore. He simply _loved_ these situations! In fact, he started jumping up and down...rather idiotically, I must say.

"Aw, this just makes it even _better,_ due to the fact that he _does_ love her, yet he is still in that marvelous process of _figuring_ it out! ROD!!!"

Rod stopped sweatdropping and looked at Seth's true nature...the lover of these types of situations. "Y-yeah, Seth?" Actually, this side of him, the unseen side, was starting to creep both Rod and Rex out of there skins...if possible.

"We must make a plan to help this poor boy named Rex." He said, suddenly back to normal. Rex was about to comment on the "poor boy named Rex" thing, when he suddenly felt like he needed to get some fresh air.

He held his hands out in front of Seth and Rod and said, "Listen. I don't know what this is about, how you came here, and I still don't _fully understand_ what is going _**on**_! I'm gonna go get some fresh air. If you seriously want to stay here, then hide for me, okay? Don't let anyone else see you." He turned to leave when he suddenly remembered an urgent matter that he decided to tell Rod. "Rod."

"Yeah?"

"Try not to get Seth worked up like that again..." He said with an awkward smile and a sweatdrop.

"Yeah, sure." Rod replied, with an equally awkward smile.

Rex walked down the stairs to find Max just waking up. "Morning, Rex!" said Max, then he looked around. "Uh, hey, is Zoe still hear? She passed out last night, I heard. I wanted to check if she was alright."

Rex smiled. "Er, yeah, she's fine. She's downstairs."

"Thanks!"

Rex walked down with Max, explained that he was going to go take a breather, and went out the door.

He eventually came to the park and began to ponder on what had happened recently, for, unfortunately, he still did not quite understand it.

Okay, so here were the major things that popped into his misbegotten mind:

1) Zoe tried to tell him something and had failed and he had no idea what it was.

2) He kissed Zoe. _**Kissed**_, for God's sake! And he even liked it.

3) He kissed her again this morning.

4) Weeeell...he was really getting dramatically scared of Seth's other side. (A/n: Now that you've only _read_ of his other side, you must be dying to know what it's like in real life. That is, if you don't literally _die_, first.)

He suddenly came across a thought.

A thought that shook the life out of him.

A thought he wished he hadn't entertained.

A thought that slowly made its' was into Rex Owen's brain, slowly registering itself, and made its' way slowly to his heart.

_T-this can't be true can it?_

Rex looked around at the cherry blossoms in full bloom. He picked one.

_I-I'm in love with Zoe Drake._

--

Scabby: I like this ending to the chapter.

Zoe: The flower, the flower, what about the flower?

Scabby: Please R&R!


	4. Good Luck With That!

Hello, please don't kill me, I've been buried in a whole bunch of school work and homework all the way up to my stomach! Sorry for the wait.

_**And you're going to do that...how?**_

Zoe sat down on the couch only partly listening to the news, while the entire whole of her brain was consumed by thoughts of how she was going to go about confessing to Rex that she loved him.

She sighed and went upstairs.

Then suddenly it hit her. She raised back downstairs, telling Max she had to go home and would be right back, put on her shoes, and stepped outdoors, running home.

.................................................................................................................................

Rex came rushing back home and burst open the door. Max looked up from the television in surprise.

"R–"

"Zoe! Is-is she still here? I need to tell her something!"

Max looked at his friend while many feelings ran through his brain. Confusion. Surprise. Realization. Amusement.

Amusement? Well, Max could kind of see it coming. The little stares, those little talks, Max mentally slapped himself for not realizing until now.

Rex was in love with Zoe.

Too obvious. Max shook his head, smiled inwardly, and said, "Zoe said she had something to get...or, er, do...whatever, at her house. Said she'd be back."

Rex slumped in the doorway. _So she's not here._ Max sweatdropped. "Uh, hey, Rex, she said she was gonna be back. It's not the end of the world..."

Rex blushed slightly. He really shouldn't have lost his composure. He stood up. "Right. Uh, Max, I'm gonna...go to my room, okay?"

"Okay."

Once Rex was out of sight, Max rolled along the floor with laughter. _I hope this turns out well..._

..................................................................................................................................

Once Rex was in his room, he was greeted by....nothing. No one was in here. Maybe Seth and Rod weren't here to begin with? Maybe it was all some crazy hallucination?

Rex sat on his bed. Suddenly, Rod and Seth came crawling out from under it.

"Gross, what do you keep under that bed?" Rod snorted, then held his nose in an offensive gesture.

Rex responded with a calm, "My underwear."

Rod glared at him. Seth smiled. "So what have you figured out?"

Rex stared up at Seth. How did he know so much about the word "love" ? How did he seem to know how it felt? To need someone...and be needed in return?

Rex took a deep breath. Were they going to tell anyone? He had to admit, Rod and Seth weren't exactly the people Rex imagined confiding the secret of the girl he liked, so why tell them?

But it all came flooding out. "I'm in love with Zoe. I never realized until now and I don't know if she likes me back. The thoughts of her _not_ liking me back kill me. I know I'm her friend, but does she think of me as something more than that? I could rack my brain for endless hours asking even _more_ endless questions and never get an answer. Yet, I'm too afraid to confess my love because I am afraid she will reject me (a/n: as you might have noticed, once Rex talks about Zoe, he can't seem to EVER stop...but he does sound quite poetic, doesn't he?) If she rejects me, I'll end up rejecting myself, filling my head with how awful I am when I know I'm not. The thoughts are overwhelming..."

Rex finally looked up at Seth, who was writing notes down, and to Rod, who sat on a brown wooden chair nodding his head.

"So that's it, then?" Seth said looking up. Rex nodded. Seth smiled. "ALL RIGHT, THEN!!! ROD!!! WE MUST HELP HIM!!! MY PEN!!!! MY PAPER!!! GET ME MY PEN AND PAPER!!!"

Rod and Rex fell down anime style. They quickly got back up quickly and Rod said, "Seth, your pencil and paper is in your hands."

"Oh, yes! I-I knew that!" He said, standing up and doing a super hero pose on the chair. As he did his super hero act, a picture fell out of his pocket.

Rex noticed it. He picked it up. "Er, Seth, you dropped this. It's–"

Seth turned around, swiped the picture, and held it backwards near his heart, as so Rod and Rex couldn't see it.

Rex was confused. He hadn't even looked at the picture yet! "Seth, what, er, _**who**_ is that picture of?"

Seth put the picture back in his pocket and turned to Rex, face as red as a tomato. This might be nothing but a simile to some people, but to Rex, it was true. Seth's face was even _redder_ than a tomato. Seth mumbled quietly, although it was more to himself than to Rex, "I can't tell....you."

Rex respected the fact that Seth didn't want to tell him, and waved off the topic. "Never mind...a-anyway, what were you saying about a pencil and a paper?"

Seth nodded and quickly got back to the topic. "Oh, yes! We must create a plan..."

Rex tilted his head slightly. _Huh?_

"....to help this poor boy named Rex!"

Rex sighed and slumped to the door to lock it, assuring their privacy. That is, if Seth wouldn't use his inside voice.

_I have a bad feeling about all this..._

_.................................................................................................................................. _

Zoe sat at her desk in her room, holding a pencil and a paper. (Pfft! What is it with this chapter and writing?) She looked up, facing her picture of Rex. _Now! I attack! _She brought her hand with the pencil held custody in it to the paper and began to write.

_Dear Rex,_

That was all she put before her hand faltered. _This is so hard! _She cried a bit, each tear falling onto either her or the paper. _Oh, heck! _

She got a grip. She took deep breaths. She knew that Rex would be nice enough to at least read it, even if he _didn't_ like her. What if she did it in the form of a poem?

_Dear Rex,_

_I've tried so hard_

_Practically scarred_

_To tell you how I feel_

_It's the only thing I know that's real_

_Every time I turn around_

_You're there standing_

_But I'm bound_

_By the love I have to express_

_I'm overwhelmed by the stress_

_Every aspect of you calls to me_

_But I can't come to you_

_Because I am afraid_

_Every time you leave, I wish you'd stayed_

_When people ask me who I love_

_I used to rack my brains and think "Who?"_

_But I finally came to my senses_

_That person is you._

She studied the letter for 2 minutes, then decided she was content with it, and put it in an envelope with _To Rex_ written on the back.

She overlooked it. She hadn't seen it at all. She'd forgotten the most important thing of all as she dropped it into the navy blue mail box. How? How could she have missed it?

She forgot to sign her name.

..................................................................................................................................

Scabby: I thought about making this ending a cliffy, but... I made you wait long enough. I was grounded, you see.

Rex and Zoe: Pfft!

Scabby: SHUT UP!


End file.
